Thinking About Psychology

The Science of Mind and Behavior 3e

Charles T. Blair-Broeker & Randal M. Ernst

PowerPoint Presentation Slides
by Kent Korek
Germantown High School
Worth Publishers, © 2012
Development and Learning Domain
Life-Span Development
 Module 11
Prenatal and Childhood
Development
 Module Overview
• The Beginnings of Life
• Physical Development in Infancy and Childhood
• Cognitive Development in Infancy and Childhood
• Social Development in Infancy and Childhood
• Three Key Developmental Issues

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 Module 11: Prenatal and Childhood Development

The Beginnings of Life

 Module 11: Prenatal and Childhood Development

The Beginnings of Life:

Prenatal Development
 Prenatal Development
• Prenatal defined as
“before birth”
• Prenatal stage begins
at conception and ends
with the birth of the
child.
 Zygote
• A fertilized egg.
• The first two weeks are a period of rapid
cell division.
• Cells start to differentiate and specialize
• Around the tenth day, the zygote attaches
to the uterine wall
• At the end of 14 days the zygote becomes
an embryo
 Genes
• The biochemical units of heredity that
make up the chromosomes.
• Direct the process of differentiation
Prenatal Development
 Embryo
• A developing human organism from
about 2 weeks after fertilization until
the end of the eighth week.
• Most of the major organs are formed
during this time.
• At the end of the eight week the fetal
period begins.
 Fetus
• A developing human
organism from nine
weeks after conception
to birth.
 Placenta
• A cushion of cells in the mother by
which the fetus receives oxygen and
nutrition
• Acts as a filter to screen out substances
that could harm the fetus
 Teratogens
• Substances that cross the placental
barrier and prevent the fetus from
developing normally.
• Includes: radiation, toxic chemicals,
viruses, drugs, alcohol, nicotine, etc.
 Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS)
• Physical and cognitive abnormalities
that appear in children whose
mothers consumed large amounts of
alcohol while pregnant.
 Module 11: Prenatal and Childhood Development

The Beginnings of Life:

The Newborn
 Reflex
• an automatic, unlearned response
• Sucking, swallowing and grasping reflexes
are present in a newborn
 Rooting Reflex
• A baby’s tendency, when touched on the
cheek,
• to open the mouth and
• search for the nipple.
 Temperament
• A person’s characteristic emotional
excitability.
• A child might be:
– An “easy” or “difficult” baby
• Temperament shown in infancy appears
to carry through a person’s life.
 Module 11: Prenatal and Childhood Development

Physical Development in
Infancy and Childhood
 Infant, Toddler, Child
• Infant: First year
• Toddler: From about 1 year to 3
years of age
• Child: Span
between toddler
and teen
 Module 11: Prenatal and Childhood Development

Physical Development in
Infancy and Childhood:
The Developing Brain
 Maturation
• Biological growth processes that enable
orderly changes in behavior.
• Some changes are genetic
• Some changes are due to the environment
• The most neurological growth is seen
from ages 3 to 6
Neural Development
 Module 11: Prenatal and Childhood Development

Physical Development in
Infancy and Childhood:
Motor Development
 Motor Development
• Includes all physical skills and
muscular coordination
• Learning to walk
Motor Development
 Module 11: Prenatal and Childhood Development

Cognitive Development in
Infancy and Childhood
 Developmental Psychology
• A subfield of
psychology that
studies physical,
cognitive, and social
changes throughout
the life span.
• More than just child
development
 Jean Piaget (pee-ah-ZHAY)
• Pioneer in the study of developmental
psychology who introduced a stage theory
of cognitive development that led to a
better understanding of children’s thought
processes.
• Proposed a theory consisting of four stages of
cognitive development
 Cognition
• All the mental activities associated
with thinking, knowing, and
remembering.
• Children think differently than adults do
 Schemas
• Concepts or mental frameworks that
people use to organize and interpret
information.
• Sometimes called schemes
• A person’s “picture of the world”
 Assimilation
• Interpreting a new experience within
the context of existing schemas.
• The new experience is similar to other
previous experiences
 Accommodation
• Adapting current schemas to
incorporate new information.
• The new experience is so novel the
person’s schemata must be changed to
accommodate it
Assimilation/Accommodation
Assimilation/Accommodation
Assimilation/Accommodation
 Module 11: Prenatal and Childhood Development

Cognitive Development in
Infancy and Childhood:
Sensorimotor Stage
 Sensorimotor Stage
• In Piaget’s theory, the stage
• (from birth to about 2 years of age)
• during which infants learn about the
world through sensory impressions
and motor activities.
• Child learns object permanence
 Object Permanence
• The awareness that things continue to
exist even when you cannot see or
hear them.
• “Out of sight,
out of mind”
 Object Permanence Study
• One month old babies allowed to suck
on two pacifiers
• Infants later shown the pacifiers looked
primarily at the one they were given
earlier.
 Object Permanence Study
• Five month olds reactions to a numerically
impossible outcome are studied.
 Object Permanence Study
• Step One: Objects are placed in a case.
 Object Permanence Study
• Step Two: A screen come up
 Object Permanence Study
• Step Three: One object is removed in
front of child.
 Object Permanence Study
Step Four A: Possible outcome: Screen
drops, revealing one object.
 Object Permanence Study
• Step Four B: Impossible outcome:
Screen drops, revealing two objects.
 Module 11: Prenatal and Childhood Development

Cognitive Development in
Infancy and Childhood:
Preoperational Stage
 Preoperational Stage
• In Piaget’s theory, the stage
• (from about age 2 to age 6 or 7 years
of age)
• during which a child learns to use
language
• but cannot yet think logically.
 Egocentrism
• In Piaget’s theory, the inability of the
preoperational child to take another
person’s point of view or
• to understand that
symbols can represent
other objects
 Module 11: Prenatal and Childhood Development

Cognitive Development in
Infancy and Childhood:
Concrete Operational
Stage
 Concrete Operational Stage
• In Piaget’s theory, the stage of
cognitive development
• (from about age 6 to 11 years of age)
• during which children gain the
mental skills that let them think
logically about concrete events.
• Learn conservation
 Conservation
• The principle (which Piaget believe to
be a part of concrete operational
reasoning)
• that properties such as mass, volume
and number remain the same
• despite changes in the forms of
objects.
Conservation
Conservation
Conservation
Types of Conservation Tasks
 Module 11: Prenatal and Childhood Development

Cognitive Development in
Infancy and Childhood:
Formal Operational Stage
 Formal Operational Stage
• In Piaget’s theory, the stage of
cognitive development
• (beginning about age 12)
• during which people begin to think
logically about abstract concepts and
form strategies about things they may
not have experienced.
• Can solve hypothetical problems (What
if…. problems)
 Module 11: Prenatal and Childhood Development

Cognitive Development in
Infancy and Childhood:
Assessing Piaget
Assessing Piaget’s Theory
 Assessing Piaget’s Theory
• Piaget underestimated the
child’s ability at various
ages.
• Piaget’s theory doesn’t
take into account culture
and social differences.
 Module 11: Prenatal and Childhood Development

Social Development in
Infancy and Childhood
 Stranger Anxiety
• The fear of strangers that infants
commonly display,
• beginning around 8 months of age.
 Module 11: Prenatal and Childhood Development

Social Development in
Infancy and Childhood:
Attachment
 Attachment
• The emotional tie with another person
shown by seeking closeness to the
caregiver and showing distress on
separation.
• Body contact, familiarity, and
responsiveness all contribute to
attachment.
 Harry Harlow
• Did research with infant monkeys on
how body contact relates to attachment
• The monkeys had to chose between a
cloth mother or a wire mother that
provided food.
 Harry Harlow
• The monkeys
spent most of their
time by the cloth
mother.
 Familiarity
• Sense of contentment with that which is
already known
• Infants are familiar with their parents
and caregivers.
 Konrad Lorenz
• Researcher who focused on critical
attachment periods in baby birds,
• a concept he called imprinting.
• Goslings are imprinted to follow the first
large moving object they
see.
 Imprinting
• The process by which
certain animals form
attachments during a
critical period early in
life.
 Critical Period
• The optimal period
shortly after birth
when an organism’s
exposure to certain
experiences produces
proper development.
 Responsiveness
• Responsive parents are aware of what
their children are doing.
• Unresponsive parents ignore their
children--helping only when they want
to.
 Module 11: Prenatal and Childhood Development

Social Development in
Infancy and Childhood:
Effects of Attachment
 Securely or Insecurely Attached
• Securely attached – children will
explore their environment when primary
caregiver is present
• Insecurely attached – children will
appear distressed and cry when
caregiver leaves. Will cling to them
when they return
 Effects of Attachment
• Secure attachment predicts social
competence.
• Deprivation of attachment is linked to
negative outcome.
• A responsive environment helps most
infants recover from attachment
disruption.
 Module 11: Prenatal and Childhood Development

Social Development in
Infancy and Childhood:
Parenting Patterns
 Parental Patterns
• Baumrind’s three main parenting styles
– Authoritarian parenting
– Permissive parenting
– Authoritative parenting
 Authoritarian Parenting
• A style of parenting marked by
imposing rules and expecting obedience
• Low in warmth
• Discipline is strict and sometimes
physical.
• Communication high from parent to child
and low from child to parent
• Maturity expectations are high.
 Permissive Parenting
• A style of parenting marked by
submitting to children’s desires,
making few demands, and using little
punishment
• High in warmth but rarely discipline
• Communication is low from parent to
child but high from child to parent.
• Expectations of maturity are low.
 Authoritative Parenting
• A style of parenting marked by making
demands on the child, being responsive,
setting and enforcing rules, and
discussing the reason behind the rules.
• High in warmth with moderate discipline
• High in communication and negotiating
• Maturity expectations are moderate.
Parenting Styles
 Module 11: Prenatal and Childhood Development

Three Key Developmental

Issues
 Continuity and Stages
• How much of behavior is continuous
and how much follows a more stage like
development?
 Stability and Change
• What developmental traits remain stable
over time, and which change?
 Nature and Nurture
• How much of our behavior is due to
nature and how much is due to nurture?
• How do nature and nurture interact in
development?
The End
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Kent Korek
Germantown High School
Germantown, WI 53022
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